"Early Returns on Health Care Reform"

[applegrove]

Early Returns on Health Care Reform

The Editorial Board at the NY Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/11/opinion/early-returns-on-health-care-reform.html?smid=re-share

"SNIP........................


It seems that once enrolled, whatever uncertainties or ideological opposition people might have to health reform largely melts away. Of the Democrats, 85 percent were happy with the new insurance, as were 74 percent of Republicans. By the beginning of June, 60 percent of the adults with new coverage said they had used their plans to go to a doctor or hospital or fill a prescription, and 62 percent of that group said they would not have been able to afford care before getting this new coverage. More than half of the adults said their plan included all or some of the doctors they wanted. Only 5 percent said none of their preferred doctors were included in their plans.

Most of the newly insured people had no trouble finding a primary care doctor, and most waited less than two weeks for an appointment. Whether that will hold true when millions more patients flood into the market remains to be seen.

The survey found that by the end of the enrollment period in March, 9.5 million fewer adults were uninsured. The largest gains in coverage were among young adults, ages 19 through 34, Latinos and low-income adults. The report also found that low-income patients were much better off in states that have expanded their Medicaid programs than in states that have not.

The Affordable Care Act provided very generous federal matching funds for states to expand Medicaid eligibility to those whose incomes fell below $15,856 for a single adult or $32,499 for a family of four last year. Yet about half the states, mostly led by Republican governors or legislators, have refused to expand Medicaid. In states that have, the percentage of adults below the federal poverty level who are uninsured dropped to 17 percent from 28 percent; that figure in the other states remained essentially unchanged at 36 percent.



..........................SNIP"